Road Pickle: The Small Stories, Part 2

Continuing from Part 1 of "Road Pickle: The Small Stories", below is a collection of photos from our six month motorcycle road trip across the USA, along with some small and interesting stories that happened along the way...

In front of Shorely Good Cafe in Cheriton, VA, located on the Eastern Shore.  Sash was so smitten with the country charm of the village and its closeness to the ocean and bay, that she wanted us to buy a house here.  Her idea was to spend the winter months in Cheriton, working on our Internet business, and then rent it out as a vacation home during the warmer months while we motorcycle across the continent.  So, we went into Shorely Good Cafe, along the main strip of Cheriton, ordered up some sandwiches, and she asked them about the winters here, wondering if they got a lot of snow.  "Not really" they answered.  She went on to pick their brains about what it's like living in Cheriton, and was sold on the idea.  Since then, however, we decided against living there.

Sash taking a rest while climbing to stairs to the top of Cape Henry Lighthouse, in Virginia Beach, VA. It's 191 steps to the top.  This lighthouse is the very first federally funded public works project, built in 1792. It was really hot the day we climbed it, 97 degrees F.  At the top of the lighthouse, it was even hotter due to it being totally encased in glass with no air vents.  As a result, you didn't want to stay very long.  The exercise, however, cost us $5.00 per person.

We had lunch at Abbey Road Pub, in Virginia Beach, VA, a restaurant devoted to The Beatles. While perusing the menu, I told Sash, "They should change the name of their lemon meringue pie to John Lennon Meringue Pie".  She laughed, and then we started coming up with other Beatlesque menu names.  We had so fun with it, that she called for the restaurant manager and told him that she wanted to rename all of their dishes.  He asked for her to write them all down and hand them to him, and that he would consider it.  So, we spent the next hour laughing over names we came up with like, "Lucy in the Sky with Tacos", "The Long and Winding Curly Fries", "I Wanna Hold Your Ham Sandwich", "Get Back to Where Your Appetizer Sampler Belongs", and "Baby You Can Drive My Carrot Cake", among several others.

Sash peeing in the bushes along State Route 661 "Clark House Farm Rd" in southern Virginia. We had left Mt. Airy, NC earlier in the afternoon and were en route to Martinsville, VA. She led the way, trying to find a restroom, but couldn't find one, so she pulled over here, taking care to avoid the Poison Oak.  Later on, this photograph was voted by members of the Motorcycle Riders Community on Google+ as its cover image.

This is at a thrift store in Memphis, TN.  Whenever we stayed at a city for a week, Sash would visit thrift stores and consignment shops to look at clothes and shoes.  She'd buy up stuff and take them back to the hotel room so that she had an assortment of "new" things to wear.  When it was time to leave town, she'd leave other garments and items behind in the hotel room, so that the load on our motorcycles never increased.  And because all of her things cost dirt cheap from shops like these, she didn't care about leaving them behind.

Sash with a Trail of Tears sign along the US-70 outside of Hazen, AR.  According to her family's history, her great-great grandmother was a Choctaw Indian who walked the Trail of Tears as a child.  During this road trip, Sash hoped to connect with the Trail of Tears as a way of coming full circle.  The Trail of Tears is not just one trail, but a network of several trails.  Sash later learned that her great-great-grandmother happened to walk the same trail that Sash is standing at.

Super 8 Motel in Martinsville, VA.  We stayed here for two nights.  Super 8 is part of the Wyndham chain of hotels, which we participate in their rewards program.  They also own Days Inn, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Baymont, among others.  Anytime we stayed in a town for just 1-3 days, we'd typically stay at a Wyndham property and rack up points.  This Super 8 in Martinsville, VA was probably the rattiest Super 8 we had seen.  It was cheap, but had old, creepy, depressing looking rooms.  Later on in the trip, we had accrued enough Wyndham points to stay at some places for free.

Sash used a Cramp Buster on her throttle throughout the the six months of riding.  Her wrists often ached from holding the down throttle.  The Cramp Buster worked OK on long stretches of highway, but when we got into cities where there was a lot of "stop and go", it became a nuisance, and she would yank it off the throttle.  She also tried using a wrist brace and applied various ointments to deaden the pain.  Eventually, we shortened the travel between towns to make it easier on her body.

At Grace O'Malley's Pub in Ruidoso, NM.  I'm a pretty simple guy with simple needs, and besides riding motorcycles and working on my Internet business, I like to drink craft beer.  When Sash and I would pull into a town, she'd often be hungry while I'd often be thirsty.  And since I'm often leading the ride, I pass by dozens of restaurants in search of a bar that "looks" eclectic enough to serve up a good selection of craft beers, all the while Sash is getting irritated over her hunger.  We'd often argue and fight over what's more important, her getting food or my getting beer.

Me at the Post Office in San Ysidro, CA, on the day we started our road trip.  San Ysidro is the south-western-most point the United States, and this Post Office is often used as one of the "corners" in the Iron Butt Association's "Four Corners Ride".  Sash and I thought about visiting each of the four corners (San Ysidro, Key West, FL, Madawaska, ME, and Blaine, WA).  But mid-way through the ride we decided it was not doable with all the other people we wanted to meet, places to see, and roads to ride.

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